Shih Tzu: Off-topic, sorry, but since you've mentioned this before I thought you might like a heads-up. I stumbled across another autoblog at "gamecosmos.com". Under the catchy read more

About GameSetWatch

GameSetWatch.com is the alt.video game weblog and sister site of Gamasutra.com. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and oft-ignored games from consoles old and new, as well as from the digital download, iOS, and indie spaces.

Over at Gamasutra, 'serious games' creator Ian Bogost is making the case that video games should be more mundane, particularly discussing of Nintendo's Brain Age: "It’s certainly a very different kind of game from Halo or even Miyamoto’s own Zelda series, games that allow the player to inhabit complex fantasy worlds. Instead, much of Brain Age’s success seems to come precisely from the ordinariness of its demands."

So - what of this? Would games become more accessible if they tapped into everyday things a little bit more, as opposed to spiralling off into fictional realities? Bogost suggests: "As a medium becomes more familiar, it also becomes less edgy and exciting. This is what [clothing designer] Marc Ecko means when he refers to movies as demystified. Over time, media becomes domesticated, and domestication is a mixed blessing."

But, he cautions, there's an upside: "On the one hand, it allows broader reach and scale. It means that more people can understand and manipulate the medium. Grandma and grandpa understand what they are looking at when you send them a VHS tape of junior blowing out the candles." Do you want to live in a world where games are 'ordinary'? Because sooner or later, we're going to get there - or that's the suggestion.

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Off-topic, sorry, but since you've mentioned this before I thought you might like a heads-up. I stumbled across another autoblog at "gamecosmos.com". Under the catchy moniker "Xbox 360 Wii Playstation 3 Blog", it seems to be appropriating its content from GameSetWatch, Destructoid, and thinkgaming.org, and possibly others.